Techno economical study of photovoltaic energy installations within DCND.

Abstract

Concerns have risen in the last few years about global warming. It has been shown that energy is responsible for a big share of CO2 emissions, and new ways of saving and producing energies are being investigated. Renewable energies are expected to play a major role in the world‟s energetic future, and photovoltaic – a technology converting sunlight into electricity – could be one of the important components. These concerns have also started to get integrated by companies and industries. They start to realise that the way they produce is not sustainable, and want to diversify their energy sources. This is also at the same time a way of saving money and developing a better and cleaner image for customers. DCNS is a leading company in the field of naval defence systems and is implanted at ten different places in France. After having achieved a group-wide ISO14001 certification and carried out a complete carbon accounting, DCNS is getting interested in different renewable energies, and among them photovoltaic electricity. The project is managed by the environmental service for the whole group, and the aim is to install as many photovoltaic panels as possible. It has been shown that photovoltaic energy would be technically interesting, and using it on DCNS‟ industrial centres could cover between 5 and 10% of the whole group electricity consumption, and up to 20% of the sites it is installed in. However, it is economically and juridically not as simple. Feed-in tariffs were launched in France in 2006, and the sector saw a big increase between 2006 and 2010, but in March 2011 all the incentives were decreased a lot. For big projects such as DCNS‟, companies need now to answer to call for tenders published by the state. Moreover, the sector does not seem to be mature yet; it is for example difficult to find serious and experienced companies, and consulted companies gave very different offers. There are also difficulties inside of DCNS, with reticence from several services such as the juridical or the infrastructures ones. It has also been shown that environmental parameters are very important. In all cases photovoltaic panels are beneficial and avoid CO2 emissions over their life cycles, but they are even more interesting if they are produced close to where they are installed, using low-carbon electricity, and transported by trains instead of trucks. To conclude, the project could be interesting in the future for DCNS, but more work needs to be done to answer to call for tenders, with special importance to environmental and aesthetical parameters. More internal communication needs also to be done so that all concerned persons feel involved in the project.